Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1) (11 page)

“Lucy!”

“Not the time to reprimand me on my language, Dad.”

“There are two of them.”

“I know.”

“Be careful, honey.”

“I will. You know I can do it.” She shifted the bow back to her right hand and headed off to a more open area.

Their auras were one of the things between the two factions that were a blessing and a curse at the same time. The red and
silver shimmering auras allowed them to identify each other immediately, which was usually a good thing, like earlier in the bakery. However, it was times like this when you wanted stealth and the auras just wouldn’t allow it. They were all glowing like beacons in the night.

May as well have been holding a big flashing sign that said ‘
come and get me motherfucker.’

Once she was in the larger open area
, she lifted the cross bow and let it rest against her shoulder. She watched as they crept across the graveyard, trying to stick to the trees. What, were they drunk? Did they actually think that they were hidden and she couldn’t see them?

Finally, they were close enough that she aimed the cross bow at the red targets and called out. “I can see you.”

One of the Reapers shot off to the left and the other went to the right. Lucy cursed and picked one to shoot at. She should have just taken the shot while they thought they hadn’t been seen. It’s a lot easier to hit a target that’s not moving.

She pulled the trigger and waited. Nothing. “Shit.” She must have missed. Quickly, she fitted another arrow into the cross bow and took aim on the same one she had just fired. She had just gotten him within her sights and her finger was tickling the trigger when she heard her father call out.

“Lucy, behind you!”

She was only able to turn slightly when someone, most likely the other Reaper, slammed into her body and took her down onto the soft earth floor. Her cross bow slipped from her fingers and skidded across the dirt, coming to a stop completely out of her reach. “Owww, shit!” She turned and struggled trying to get out from beneath him.

“Dad, get out of here!” she screamed. “Disappear! Hide!”

She didn’t care what he did as long as he got the hell away from these Reapers. But, he was her father and he probably wasn’t going to go far.

She turned to the side, hoping to at least get onto her back where she could have a better chance at fighting. With all the force she could muster, she slammed her elbow backward, hoping to make contact with something.

She did.

Unsure of where she hit him, she heard a grunt and then he grabbed her hair, pushing her face downward into the dirt. Again, she elbowed him and then bent her knee and topped it off with a nice kick in the butt.

As he reacted just slightly, she flipped herself, landing on her back. She knew she had to get out of this. She couldn’t die here in front of her father
, who had chosen not to cross over so that he could help her fulfill the prophecy.

Once she was on her back the Reaper had fully recovered and came at her again. This was not the Reaper she had met in the bakery earlier in the day. This one had blond hair, dark green eyes
, and a look so intense she knew that this man was a stone cold killer.

He was attractive, but not like the other Reaper she’d met.

What the fuck was she thinking! Dammit, Lucy. You’re going to die, snap the fuck out of it!

In an instant he had a giant knife in this hand. She saw the lamplight glint off the steel blade as he lunged at her. Instinctively, she pushed her feet out and her boots connected with his chest. He staggered backward a couple of feet, giving her time to jump into a standing position.

He held the knife at his side. “Don’t make this harder on yourself,” he told her calmly.

Lucy fought the urge to look around for the other Reaper, she had seen two red auras, so she knew the other was out there somewhere.

The blond Reaper lunged for her. Lucy was already in her fighting stance, her guard up and her foot in front of her. Problem was he had a knife and his reach was longer than hers. Decision made within an instant, she snapped out a kick, making contact with his knife hand. His fingers unclenched, dropping the weapon to the ground. Not giving him even one chance to try and go for the knife, she moved in and threw a right hook, her fist slamming into his jaw. Then an uppercut with the left to his stomach as she simultaneously grabbed his hair and raised her knee, effectively bashing his face into the hard bone of her knee cap.

“Son of a bitch!”
the Reaper cried out, grabbing at his face.

Blood leaked out from between his fingers from his obviously broken nose.

“Who’s got it hard now?” she asked him, shaking her hand where it tingled from the contact with the skin of a Reaper.

“I am going to kill you,
bitch!” Then he pulled one of her favorite moves and went low, knocking her to the ground with a sweep of his leg and grabbing his knife with his right hand.

It seemed only a second passed, she saw him coming and went for the only weapon she had available
. Reaching down, she slipped one of the silver arrows out of her hip pouch. The next thing she knew the Reaper had her pinned, his legs pressed into her arms with so much weight it was impossible for her to move them. The blade was at her throat before she could attempt any sort of attack or escape.

Shit, shit, shit. All of her training flew out the window when the cold steel of the blade touched her skin. Her fingers clenched around the arrow, refusing to let go even though she couldn’t move her arm to use it. All she had left was
to hold still and hope for a miracle. Her chin tilted upward and her eyes closed, she silently prayed that her father was not watching this.

Then suddenly, she heard a shout
, “get the fuck off her!” and she felt the Reaper being lifted away from her body. Her eyes snapped open and she saw the sexy Reaper from the bakery lifting the blond one off of her. His dark eyes were angry and his aura was on fire.

The knife grazed over the tender skin at her throat as the Reaper was pulled away from her body. She knew she w
as bleeding, but that it wasn’t fatal. Without thinking, she swung her right hand over and plunged the arrow into any part of that Reapers body that it would make contact with.

She was so pissed that the silver crossbow arrow plunged into the Reapers calf with so much force it went in a couple inches.

“Motherfucker!” the blond Reaper, still in the clutches of the sexy one, cried out and bent to clutch at his leg. “Jack, you motherfucker! Kill her dammit!”

Her eyes met Jack’s and he gave her a slight nod.

At that moment, Lucy knew she had a few options, but her fear gave way to any other method of attack and she ran. She scooped up her crossbow from the ground, ignoring the blood dripping from her neck wound and ran as fast as she could over the earthen covered bodies of the dead and hit the gravel of the pathway, almost falling from the marble like pebbles.

She could see the blue mist of the souls gathering to see what was going on. “Get out of here!”
she yelled at them. “Hide!”

She stumbled into the house and grabbed her keys off the side table. Not stopping for anything else, even her purse, she ran to her car and started the thing
, then peeled out of her driveway in a spray of dirt and gravel.

She drove for about ten minutes, trying to calm herself. Her heart was still beating extremely fast and she kept feeling the wound at her neck. It was just a scratch, thank
God. But … fuckin’ A, someone had just tried to kill her.

She sped into Ethan’s driveway and halted the car so quickly that it skidded to the side. Still unable to calm herself she staggered out of the car, leaving the door open and hurried up on to Ethan’s porch where she pounded on his door.

“What the fuck!” Aiden stood up and swung at Jack.

Jack stepped back and let his friend’s massive fist fly through the air in front of him.

Aiden looked like shit. His nose was bleeding profusely, staining his face and tee shirt with the evidence of the fight. “Let me look at your leg?”

“You get the fuck away from me,” Aiden hissed at him. Then, he reached down and clasped his fingers around the sliver arrow protruding from his calf and yanked. The arrow slid out easily and Aiden tossed it on the ground at Jacks feet.”

“Aiden…”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Aiden growled. “We had a deal, I fucking knew you couldn’t do it, so I was going to take care of it. Why did you do that? We had her!”

“I don’t know.” And he didn’t know. All he did know was that when he saw Lucy on the ground with Aiden on top of her and his knife at her neck, something came over him and he wanted to rip Aiden limb from limb.

He had seen Lucy’s fear, seen her fighting not to give up, and his instinct had taken over. He had barely known what he was doing before he realized that he had grabbed his best friend from the back and tore him away from the young Keeper.

Yeah. What the fuck was wrong with him?

“You don’t know.” Aiden limped away from Jack, headed for the trail that would take them back down to where the road Jack’s truck was parked. “You don’t fucking know! Dammit, Jack.”

He couldn’t explain it to himself, how in the hell was he supposed to explain his irrational behavior to his friend. “I told you, I don’t fucking know what happened!” Jack yelled back at him as he followed him out of the graveyard.

Jack opened the door of his truck and slid behind the wheel while Aiden struggled to get himself into the passenger side. Aiden looked over at him out of the corner of his eye and Jack knew he had really fucked up. “You are supposed to always have my back. Always. That is one fucking thing that we have never wavered on.”

He was right, he was totally fucking right. Throughout their life Aiden had covered for Jack more times than he could count. He had always been there to help him or protect him, no matter what the situation. He had owed him this one.

“I don’t know what to tell you, except what I already did. I. don’t. fucking. know.”

“You’re an asshole, Jack. A big one.”

“I know.”

“More than big, like fucking huge.”

“I know.”

Jack wanted to say something more, instead he just pulled the truck out into the dark street and headed toward his house.

Aiden kept quiet until they got back to Jack’s place. The silver of the arrow was going to weaken him and he would need a little time to recover, so Jack assumed that they would go back to the house and chill. But, as soon as Jack pulled into the driveway and parked, Aiden hopped out of the truck and then stepped up onto the back of the truck and pulled his bag out of the bed.

Jack watched as he swung it over his shoulder and headed for his rented SUV. He opened the door to the back seat and threw the bag inside.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m getting the hell away from you. I tried to give you a chance to make it right with you
r parents and the Reaper Council and you fucked me over. Maybe the Empress was right. Maybe you aren’t capable of leading. You can’t even do one fucking thing that could save our entire race.”

“I can’t murder her
,” Jack told him softly.

Aiden stepped up into the SUV and sat down on the soft leather interior of the driver seat. “Well, I can.” His gaze locked on Jacks. “I’m taking care of this mission with or without you. Unlike you, I still have a job to keep.”

With that, Aiden slammed the door and started the vehicle. He backed all the way down the driveway and then tore off down the deserted street, leaving Jack standing in his driveway feeling like dog shit.

How did a guy choose between the only person in the world who had ever really been there for him and murdering someone. Sure, that someone was a Keeper whom he’d only just met, but it was still murder.

Not to mention that something had happened to him when Aiden had attacked her. That feeling was one he had never, ever experienced before. As if driven by unseen forces, he had felt the intense urge to safeguard her from harm.

“Son of a bitch!” Jack kicked the fender of his truck with his boot. Then, he stared at the dent for a few seconds and didn’t feel like it was enough so he kicked it again, and again until he decided it wasn’t making him feel any better, he was just beating the shit out of his truck.

Well, why do with violence what beer and fucking could do. He got back inside his truck and sped out of his driveway following the direction that Aiden had gone.

When he got to
Knight’s, he saw Reese behind the bar and waved at her.

“You look like shit
,” she called out to him as she extracted an MGD and set it on the bar for him.

“I know
,” he told her. “It’s been a shitty day.”

“Looks like it
,” she responded.

“Do you ever let anyone else tend the bar?”
he asked, looking around as if there might be a replacement waiting for her in the wings.

She shook her head. “Not usually, I don’t trust a whole lot of people enough for that. This place is my baby.”

“Yeah, I get that.” He took a swig of his beer and cringed. “Ugh. Can I get a shot of Jameson with this too?”

“I thought you tried to stay away from the hard stuff.” Her dark eyes penetrated him, looking for a reason that he would want to be drinking the hard A.

“Not tonight I don’t.”

“Fine. But, because I’m your friend I’m only allowing you one shot
, then it’s back to the hangover beer for you.”

Friend. What a fucked up word. The F word for sure.

He gave her a twisted smile as she handed him the shot of amber colored liquid. “I don’t have any friends. Not anymore.”

She shot him a concerned look and put the Jameson bottle back on the shelf. “You do now. I think we hit it off as far as friends go. See, I’m going to help you out right now, just like
a dude would. There’s Janette.”

“Who?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Jack raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders, then tilted his head back and slammed his shot.

Reese had her hands on her hips. “Janette. The girl you took home the other night,” she explained.

“Oh! You mean Janice.” He turned around to see who she was talking about.

“No, I mean Janette. That is her name, asshole.”

“Oh shit, really?”

Reese shook her head and laughed. “You may be good looking, but you are the poster child for guys women shouldn’t date. I have no idea why I like you at all.”

With a smile, Jack turned around and wiggled his eyebrows
. “Maybe we should take that to the next level.” He was totally joking and she knew it. The two of them seemed to have a mutual no touchy code.

“Not a chance in hell, Casanova.”

Jack laughed and then once again looked over his shoulder at Janette. Now,
that
was exactly what he needed right now. Nothing calms the nerves after an attempted murder and a fight with your friend like a good night of fucking out the frustration. He grabbed his beer and got up off the stool. 

“Really, Jack?”

He ignored Reese and set off for Janette, who stood leaning over the pool table, flirting with a guy who looked like the senior quarterback of the high school football team, fucking letter jacket and all. Most likely this was the idiot from every town who graduated and just couldn’t give up the glory of the good ole days.

“Hey Janette.”

With a giggle, she turned around and he was rewarded with a look at those amazing tits all encased in a halter top that pushed them up, creating cleavage any guy would end up drooling over. Hell, chicks probably drooled over it too.

When she saw him her giggle disappeared. “Oh, it’s you.”

Yeah, she was still pissed. Oh well, she could take it out on him later. He may be an asshole, but one thing was for sure, they always came back for more. Always.

“You want to get out of here?” That’s right, straight to the point.

She raised one eyebrow and looked at him like he was crazy. “Now, why in the world would I want to go anywhere with you?” She took a long swig of her Budweiser.

“You know why.”

“Listen, Jack. I don’t like to be used.” She tilted her head up defiantly.

With a smile, Jack set his beer on the table beside him and leaned forward, placing one hand on the pool table on either side of her so that she was trapped, her body almost, but not quite, touching his. “Oh, I think you do
,” he whispered against her ear.

“Dude, seriously?”

The sound of Mr. letterman Jacket’s voice forced him to look away from Janette and her perfectly pouty lips. The guy stood there with a pool stick clutched in his hand, obviously upset that Jack had moved in on what he’d been working on.

“Yeah, seriously
,” he told the guy without missing a beat and then directed his attention back to Janette. “So, what’s it going to be?”

She tilted her head to the side as if contemplating whether or not she should go. “Well, I guess.” She moved forward to stand, so Jack moved his hands and backed up. “Let’s go then.” He grabbed his beer bottle and chugged down every last drop, then grabbed Janette’s hand and pulled her away from the kid who was clearly losing any hope he had of bagging her.

“See ya Lance,” Janette giggled, grabbing her purse off the table as she let Jack pull her away.

Oh shit, seriously, his name was Lance. Perfect jock name to go along with the rest of his persona.

He passed by the bar and saw Reese shaking her head. She caught his eye and flipped him off. He shot the finger back at her and hurried out the door into the warm air of small town Summer Hollow.

For some reason, he felt like he was in a huge hurry. Usually when he picked up women, he didn’t mind taking his time. Nothing was wrong with flirting and foreplay, it always led to the same place, so why not take your time getting there.

After they were in the truck he sped through town and took a side road that eventually turned to dirt and took them down by one of the little creeks that ran through Summer Hollow. “This looks like a nice spot to hang out,” he told Janette as he pulled the truck into a spot alongside the water. Reaching behind the seat he fumbled around with all the crap back there until his fingers found the six pack of emergency beer he’d stashed back there a while ago.

Extracting the beer, he handed one to Janette and then opened one for himself. “Thanks.” She accepted the beer and popped it open. “Look, about last time we were together…”

“We don’t need to talk about that,” Jack cut her off. More like
he
didn’t want to talk about that. He opened the door. “Come on.”

“Okay fine, we don’t have to talk about it.” She stepped down from the passenger side
. Before he got out, he leaned over, opened the glove box and grabbed a condom. He was in a hurry, but not
that
much of a hurry. He met her at the back of the truck where he pulled down the tailgate. He set his beer down and then reached out and pulled her against him.

“Mmmm,” she moaned, tilting her head up so that he had full access to her lips. One of his arms spanned around her torso and the other hand reached up and found her hair. He looked down at her face. She had opened her eyes, trying to meet his gaze and when their eyes locked, he saw utter emptiness. Suddenly, he didn’t want to kiss her. Not even to take some of her soul.

For fucks sake. He barely wanted to touch her at all.

Normally, when a chick was with him, he gave them his undivided attention. He actually liked kissing, and touching, and all that other shit girls liked. Intimacy didn’t bother him, relationships did.

“Turn around,” he growled.

“Oh, hell yeah.” She turned so that her ass was pressed against his cock and gave a little wiggle, which was doing to his erection exactly what she wanted it to do. As quick as he could he unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his jeans, letting them drop to the ground.